Calif. Lawmakers Urge SF Archbishop to Remove Morality Clauses

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California lawmakers are urging the archbishop of San Francisco to remove morality clauses from a teachers' handbook they say are discriminatory.

Eight state lawmakers on Tuesday sent a letter to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone saying the clauses ``foment a discriminatory environment.''

Cordileone earlier this month presented teachers at the archdiocese's four high schools with a statement that says Catholic school employees are expected to conduct their public lives in a way that doesn't undermine or deny the church's doctrine.

The statement outlines the church's teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is ``gravely evil.''

The archbishop said the statement would be added to the faculty handbooks.